The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1887-12-02
AsCETiC COLLEGE LIFE.
How the Modern Youth Struggle with
scholasticism and Anti-Pcverty.

Education is not all the bare scholastic
struggle that It formerly was. The early
graduate, who remembers the Spartan
experiences of his college life, the I'M
timely morning bell that called him from
his hard couch to the barn-l like chap /,
the bare walls Of his cell-like study, the
uncomfortable chairs and the rude table
everything, indeed, subordinated to
the one idea Of discipline-must have
bitter thoughts OF what he might have
become if he had enjoyed all the aids to
development which the modern stu dent
has.
What place II is, this Sybaritic bower,
for the cultivation OF the intellect
Neither Webster nor Calhoun had any
such influence about him. What
stimulous to the mind it is, this rug-cov-
cred and curtaned chamber its tinted
walls hung with exquisite etchings and
bits OF color in OIL and the winning pic
lures of the most beautiful actresses and
singers of our time, silken portieres, deep
ch irs that invite to the profoundest re-
Election upon the great problems of ex-
istence, carved tables strewn with all the
literature OF the boudoir, rows OF book
shelves where the grand classics joste
the latest dialect and realistic outcome of
our civilization, an elegant chan teller Oh
whose branching arms hang a hundred
souvenirs of the german; bats, balls,
rackets--all the tools OF the higher edu-
cation; deep window-seat of blue plush,
where the young anchorite lies and pond
ers perhaps an epic, perhaps an Grafton
in the senate, perhaps great argument
at the bar, more probably the solution of
the chronic struggle between capital and
labor. DO we forget the piano, the rack
and the carved pipes These are for re-
Taxation, for relief in the hardships OF
the stern collegiate life for the hours of
sentiment that come alike to pitcher and
stroke oar, when he sings,
"5uch an ed-u-ca-tion has my Mary Ann"
Naturally this ascetic life manifests it.
self more or less in the undress apparel
OF the devotees of learning But the
striped caps and striped jackets that
marx the student are not imposed by
the state and not adopted in the humili-
ty OF penance lor sins, but are noble signs
of the fraternity OF learning, taken from
the tennis-court and the boathouse and
the race-course, and show that all educa-
ton is one, an ethetic democracy, a fell
! lowship between the construer OF Greek
and the flying rider of the thoroughbred.
1t is note of the higher education of
| the period. There was a good deal said
oohhV tiihV dSo Nlitsb Ntto ttiiCu tlo
luxurious life OF some OF the students at
| one OF our universities. And an impress
| sion was spread abroad that this must
| necessarily interfere with the pursuit of
| learning, and consequently with success
| in life. II don't see how you can study
in such bower" said an old-fashioned
person who saw for the first time one of
these silKen scholastic dens. The reply
was only plying smile. Study? Why,
did this ignorant questioner know that in
this university an undergraduate had re-
ceived the offer OF higher salary as
| pitcher of base ball nine than was ever
made to any OF its graduates for filling
! any professors chair in this country p
Charles Dudley Warner in Harpers for
September.